Thursday, January 24, 2008

Plotting in my above-ground lair

I am going to visit Japan this year. Traveling to Japan requires money. Also, I have several articles I would like to sell before I leave here, and time is running out.

All this means that I have kicked my job search into high gear.

This blog is not about my travails as a freelance writer — joke's on you, really, because this blog is not about anything — so I won't go into excruciating detail. But let me just say that if there's anyone worse at being a freelancer than I am, I would like to meet him (though that's probably out of the question as he's likely died of starvation).

I am doing what I can.

The other day, I applied for an online writing job. (The ad requested writing samples and said that blog entries were ideal. I sent a few pages from your blog. I hope that's OK.)

I also sent out an email to my college alumni Listserv asking for help selling four story ideas. I got quite a few emails back. A few from friends I hadn't heard from in a while. A few from well-meaning strangers offering advice.

One woman wrote back and said that she loved all the ideas and wanted to wish me luck. Her last name was not Newhouse or Sulzberger, so this was pleasant to hear but ultimately not fruitful.

Fortunately, something did come of all my scheming and searching: I have a job interview today at a wine shop. It sounded great, initially. Then I called up and the woman told me the job would consist in part of distributing fliers on the street and in part of high-pressure sales.

Considering most of the pressure I exerted on people at my last sales job was NOT to buy things (Definitely don't buy those peaches; I wouldn't get those cherries if I were you, etc.), it's hard to see myself thriving in a high-pressure sales environment.

I do feel upbeat about my chances of getting the job. One of the requirements for the job is fluency in English. In the phone interview, the owner asked how my English was and how I had come to speak it. I told her I was from the United States of America. She expressed surprise and complimented my Spanish.

Wait till she hears my English!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, I realize this is a gravely stupid question, but I'll ask it anyways & risk the ridicule . . . is this wine job interview for in Argentina (= for the next 8 wks basically) or the US??

Dan said...

Well, if it wasn't clear then evidently it could use some explaining. Do you think I blog only to dish out ridicule? At any rate, the biggest object of ridicule on this blog is me.

The job is in Buenos Aires. On Florida street, to be exact. I was considering it because, really, I don't feel that a job handing out flyers requires a commitment of more than two months. I actually suspect that's a long time in the fast-paced world of flyer distribution.

But as it happens, I'm not taking the job.

Matt said...

Might i suggest Contegrity as an ideal way to increase your feelings of self-worth (or at the very least, self-importance)? It "opens up the possibility of everyone...to be a leader, a guide, a trailblazer."

I should imagine it's just the kind of help you're in need of.

Mull it over and then go bake a cake.

Dan said...

Might i suggest Contegrity as an ideal way to increase your feelings of self-worth...

I'm not sure what Contegrity is, but it sounds like Malbec. And if Contegrity is more than, say, 15 pesos a bottle, it's really not for me.